Chuck: "Chuck Versus The Break Up"Review

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Bryce returned, while playing Madden caused mayhem.

By Eric Goldman

Ah, Bryce – the character who is responsible for the entire conceit of the series, and who has such a complicated role in Chuck's life. A couple of people said in the comments last week that they felt Bryce has come back too many times. I didn't really agree, and not just because he's only come back once prior to this (not counting flashbacks). More importantly, Bryce is a pretty major part of the show's mythology and it feels very appropriate to have him show up a couple of times a season, Matthew Bomer's schedule permitting.

Yes, once again Bryce was there to cause tension between Chuck and Sarah, but what was interesting was that ultimately, the threat wasn't that Sarah might be smitten by her ex and run off with him. Instead, by the end of the hour, Bryce, Sarah and Chuck all realized pretty conclusively that Sarah had strong feelings for Chuck and only Chuck, and that was not necessarily a good thing.

The idea that Sarah's feelings for Chuck are making her sloppy or causing her to pause when she shouldn't at her job is not a new one in spy drama of course. But it works well with the Chuck dynamic of this superspy woman who is thrown for a tizzy by the normal guy she's protecting.

Sarah and Bryce play at being a couple (again).

Some might gripe about stretching out any "Will they or won't they" dynamic, but there's a reason it's such a popular dynamic in TV – it works! The danger is that if you simply have the agonizingly attracted to each other duo hook up, then what? No, you don't necessarily want to keep them apart for the entire run of the show, but putting them together too quickly can kill the sexual tension and the drama. For now, I like how Chuck is treating it. It was actually fairly poignant to have Chuck tell both Bryce and Sarah that he actually does not want to be a spy, despite the fact that he's essentially temping as one while he has the Intersect.

Everything he told Sarah about why a relationship between them was doomed in the long term made sense, as he explained that her spy life would have a hard time meshing well with the life he sees for himself once he's freed from the Intersect. Of course that doesn't mean they can forever resist their temptations or that one of them might change their mind about what they want from life, but we have future episodes to tell us those tales.

The "upgrade" for the Intersect was a fun idea, though even more could have probably been done with the in over his head guy who'd gotten a hold of the chip and the ruthless woman pursuing him – though I did like Chuck IDing her from just her voice, thanks to vocal records. And yes, Bryce and Sarah's undercover hands all over each other dancing was hot – and yes, Yvonne Strahovski looked killer in that dress.

The Buy More storylines continue to be very broad. At first the idea of the sports store employees who were trashing the demo room while playing Madden seemed a bit too farcical, but it got funnier as it got even more broad actually – I loved the guys passing the real football to each other while watching the videogame football in front of them.

Anna showing never before noted martial arts skills was pretty over the top, but at least they went all the way with it, by having Casey inquire about possibly recruiting her. It might have just been a quick joke, but it would be interesting if they actually followed up on that idea, bringing Chuck's two worlds closer together in the process…